This has to be the earliest I've ever posted a COLIN thread but I felt the need to confirm the dates if nothing else.

So, here we go:

Dates: 19-20 January 2019
Venue (Saturday): The Ark, Moor Lane, North Hykeham
Itinerary (Saturday): Doors open at 10am, round 1 draw is done at 11:30am, round 1 starts at 11:50am, all done and off to the pub by 6pm
Pub (Saturday and Sunday): The Fox and Hounds, in all likelihood
Shane (Saturday): Probably not, sadly.
Venue (Sunday): The Memorial Hall, Newark Road, North Hykeham
Itinerary (Sunday): Round 1 draw done at 11am, games start shortly afterward, everyoneEspecially Jen shows up shortly after that, all done by 2:30pm.
Entry fee: £12 for the Saturday, £8 for the Sunday, or £16 for both days
How to pay: By Paypal to hulla.mahulla@btopenworld.com or by cheque to my home address (available upon request)
Prizes: As tacky as ever
Free stuff: As crappy as ever
Lee's crossword: As impenetrable as ever
Format: The same as ever, 3 rounds of Edinburgh-style play followed by a final on the Saturday, 2 rounds and a final on the Sunday.
Winner: Probably Jack again
Pretty much everything else: As you were for the last few years.

Hangover venue has been confirmed and is (surprise surprise) the Memorial Hall again. I had discovered a venue that was about a three minute walk* from my house but they don't do room bookings, despite the fact that they have in the past. Oh well. Prices will be announced once I work out costs which will be by MK at the very latest.

*I once Googled the driving time and it was something silly like 39 seconds.

...And we're live. The Ark has been confirmed for the Saturday and I've got my costings all worked out so get your cash to me asap to guarantee a place at what will undoubtedly be the most first co-event of 2019!

No-one pays attention to the stickies, it's all about the most recent posting.

Which bit are you looking at though? In the events section it's not even listed at all other than in the announcements bit. Whereas if you go to active topics it had been knocked down by hundreds of threads, not just the jogging!

Count me in for the Saturday event. Anyway, who says Hykeham isn't Lincoln? It's close enough. And Cohyk, albeit a lovely name, isn't quite as catchy as Colin. Will pay by PayPal later. Got to get practising, So far behind on watching the programmes that I'm only up to the episode where Bob Lunt went out.

Travelodge prices are still £76. The price for COLIN is also still £16 for both nights, which includes a freebie whether you like it or not in the shape of this year's puzzle magazine. If you're interested in contributing a puzzle to the magazine, let me know and space will be saved for it.

any of you lovely experienced brave travelodge warriors able to get discount codes or something? i know there's the big one on right now but it only goes up to december so who fucking cares amirite,,,,, yeah anyway is there gonna be summat like that coming up in the near future for january? i'm ready to pounce. i'm ready to fukcing leap on this ,-- thank you kindly everybody xx77]

Travelodge is now up to £81 for the two nights. Will be premiering the 'not a mug or a calendar this year' prize in short order. Entries now at 16/14 for Saturday and Sunday, last year they were 17/16 by December the 9th so now would be a good time to make me actually feel positive about the event. And obviously I'll also be taking entry fees at Birmingham.

This is the best price I've seen for a while (but I only check occasionally, might have missed some). Just over £30 a night is pretty good (not as good as the £12 a night from 2011 but not bad). Yeah, think I might do this.

As for Quidco, I'm always wary of businesses like that. You don't get something for nothing, after all, it's always taken from somebody else's income. It's why I don't use things like Just Eat since the guy in the kebab shop told me how that whole thing works. They pretty much have to sign up to it because so many people use it now, but it takes a massive chunk of their profits. I'd sooner just go direct. Maybe Quidco doesn't work that way and my concern is misplaced. Convince me otherwise!

The only effort I am willing to go to to convince you otherwise would be to show you the amount of money I've earned, and I feel like that is just playing into your hands.

I guess we're not talking about corner kebab shops here, we're talking about big companies willing to put aside a couple of percentage points in order to win business from the competition. I'm more than fine with that.

Time for the usual outrage that are the provisional seedings. I've used the same 'algorithm' to determine seedings as I did last year, hence why it looks like there may be a few anomalies in there. But it all makes sense, honest.

Time for the usual outrage that are the provisional seedings. I've used the same 'algorithm' to determine seedings as I did last year, hence why it looks like there may be a few anomalies in there. But it all makes sense, honest.

1 Jack Worsley
[snip]
28 Tim Down
[snip]
38 Mark Mills

No outrage - it's your event and you can do what you like - but at least *some* indication of how to avoid being in pot 3 next year would be nice.

Time for the usual outrage that are the provisional seedings. I've used the same 'algorithm' to determine seedings as I did last year, hence why it looks like there may be a few anomalies in there. But it all makes sense, honest.

1 Jack Worsley
[snip]
28 Tim Down
[snip]
38 Mark Mills

No outrage - it's your event and you can do what you like - but at least *some* indication of how to avoid being in pot 3 next year would be nice.

Seedings are based on averages of finishing positions from the previous 5 events (which all had more or less the same number of participants). Slightly worse news is that most prospective unconfirmed sign-ups are likely to slot in in the top 12.

Seedings are based on averages of finishing positions from the previous 5 events (which all had more or less the same number of participants). Slightly worse news is that most prospective unconfirmed sign-ups are likely to slot in in the top 12.

Seedings are based on averages of finishing positions from the previous 5 events (which all had more or less the same number of participants). Slightly worse news is that most prospective unconfirmed sign-ups are likely to slot in in the top 12.

And you put new players in the middle don't you?

Yep. Mark T was placed at the head of that bunch as he'd attended COLIN events prior and always finished in the top half.

Seedings are based on averages of finishing positions from the previous 5 events (which all had more or less the same number of participants). Slightly worse news is that most prospective unconfirmed sign-ups are likely to slot in in the top 12.

Great, thanks. As I suspected, what I need to do boils down to "do better at COLIN", although that becomes slightly harder when starting in pot 3, making low seeding self-perpetuating.

Seedings are based on averages of finishing positions from the previous 5 events (which all had more or less the same number of participants). Slightly worse news is that most prospective unconfirmed sign-ups are likely to slot in in the top 12.

Great, thanks. As I suspected, what I need to do boils down to "do better at COLIN", although that becomes slightly harder when starting in pot 3, making low seeding self-perpetuating.

It's all down to the luck of the draw, and last year you definitely didn't seem to have any, drawing Jen in round 2 and Giles in round 3.

Seedings are based on averages of finishing positions from the previous 5 events (which all had more or less the same number of participants). Slightly worse news is that most prospective unconfirmed sign-ups are likely to slot in in the top 12.

And you put new players in the middle don't you?

Yep. Mark T was placed at the head of that bunch as he'd attended COLIN events prior and always finished in the top half.

I do think it's slightly crazy to put new players in the middle by the way, but I suppose it all adds to the fun!

What's the situation with game sets this year? Can bring mine if needed

And the even bigger question...., is the dartboard at the Fox & Hounds still the evil Lincoln style one

Yes, personally I prefer the Bristol style dartboard.

Charlie, please fix likes.

I've been buying game sets over the summer so have about 15 to hand. This should be enough but I wouldn't say no if someone wants to bring theirs along just in case. As always, apterous will be the word authority, and if you could also use apterous to verify max games on the day I'd be grateful.

Mike Springett beat me to it in the Facebook discussion, but obviously there will be a parkrun happening as well on this weekend.

Just like to let everyone know there will be a parkrun happening over the weekend for Colin 2020 too. And Colin 2022.

2021 however will controversially take place midweek, so no parkrun available.

Don't tempt me.

More on the seedings: there's another very strong player whose name isn't on the list yet but who will almost certainly enter and will almost certainly end up in pot C. There's a spare COLIN XIII hangover mug for anyone who guesses who.

More on the seedings: there's another very strong player whose name isn't on the list yet but who will almost certainly enter and will almost certainly end up in pot C. There's a spare COLIN XIII hangover mug for anyone who guesses who.

More on the seedings: there's another very strong player whose name isn't on the list yet but who will almost certainly enter and will almost certainly end up in pot C. There's a spare COLIN XIII hangover mug for anyone who guesses who.

Just a heads up guys. Northern Trains are on strike on Saturday, so if you've booked a train between Sheffield and Lincoln for that morning, you may want to look for alternative means of travel (as far as I know East Midlands Trains, who run the only train that stops at Hykeham station itself, is unaffected).

Can someone repost this onto the facebook event page as well please, for some reason, my facebook doesn't let me post on public event pages.

Just a heads up guys. Northern Trains are on strike on Saturday, so if you've booked a train between Sheffield and Lincoln for that morning, you may want to look for alternative means of travel (as far as I know East Midlands Trains, who run the only train that stops at Hykeham station itself, is unaffected).

Can someone repost this onto the facebook event page as well please, for some reason, my facebook doesn't let me post on public event pages.